Speaker 1This is the Locked On Podcast Network, celebrating 10 years of your team, every day. Everyone talks about how challenging it is to raise kids, but what about protecting them? Outlet covers, kitchen cabinet locks, baby gates, where do you even start? Well, protecting your home and auto is a great place to start. Progressive offers customized coverage options so you can be sure you have the right coverage. They're basically the baby gates of insurance. Get a quote at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers not available in all states. Cash back at different places each quarter, like grocery stores, on gas, and at restaurants. It pays to discover. Terms apply. See Discover.com slash 5 for details.
Speaker 2Wizards basketball is finally back. A.J. DeBonsa, Anthony Davis, Trey Young, and this completely revamped roster take the floor against New York tomorrow. And forget the final score, because there's a lot we need to learn. You are Locked On
Speaker 3Wizards, your daily Washington Wizards podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.
Speaker 4This is Wizards shooting guard Trey Johnson, and this is the Locked On Wizards podcast.
Speaker 2You're locked on to the Washington Wizards. My name is Ben Strober, and my co-host covering the Washington Wizards alongside me every single day, as always, Abdullah Ayyubi. We're joined by Sergio from the. Dirty Bucket on YouTube today, and today's episode is brought to you by Fandle. Make this your most rewarding season ever with the Fandle Rewards Club every week. Check the Fandle app to see what's waiting for you. Coming up, we'll break down the young Wizards fighting for rotation spots and who has the most to prove here in the preseason. Before that, we'll get into A.J. DeBonsa, what we want to see from him and his first NBA action that's on a real floor, not just the summer league. But first, training camp is over. Experimentation can finally begin. Wizards beginning the preseason against the New York Knicks tomorrow. We'll get a. Fine look at maybe some of the things we could see in the regular season. D.B., what are you most looking forward to seeing tomorrow? I think there's a lot of different storylines we could tackle, but preseason game number one. What is the top thing on your mind?
Speaker 5Well, first, thank you very much for having me on, man. Really appreciate being here, man. Of course. I mean, I have like a number of things. First things, who or who? Not who won, but who is currently winning the battle of Keyshawn George versus Balakola Bali versus. A.J. Johnson to be Trae Young's backcourt mate, that and also the backup point guard situation or the backup primary playmaker situation there, looking at the 80 star fit. We'll also see a star, you know, plays a good chunk in the preseason, a number of things like that, who survives the rotational wing minutes or who survives the rotation in the wing department. I'm looking at the Andre Ian as well. You know, they talked him up. Dawkins said that he's like the quote unquote best backup. And I thought he would be playing like 18 to 20 minutes when we first traded for him. Now, just like with SARS injury and also. Anthony Davis injury history. Could be pushing 25. You know, it's a lot of stuff right there. It's very exciting. Obviously, we've been grueling it out for this entire offseason, just waiting. If there's anything that I learned this entire offseason, it's patience, patience, patience, patience. I've added that to my bag.
Speaker 6Patience. Yeah. Patience is a word that all Wizards fans should fully comprehend right now, heading into 2026. DB, I wanted to ask you about the starting two guard right now. Or do you think Keyshawn has that on lock?
Speaker 5I wouldn't say on lock. My ranking as of right now is mine. I got Keyshawn number one, then Bilal and then Trey Johnson. It's Keyshawn's the more complete round player between all the three of them. I think for the most part, the reason why I have Trey Johnson number three, it's not indicative of who he is as a player or his ceiling or what I think of him. It's just the overall fit next to Trey Young. You know, defensively, we know what that would happen there. It's just, I think if Bilal continues to improve that three point shot, which he did towards the end of the season post all-star break. We saw it at the open practice. You know, I'm not, I'm not out on Bilal starting. I think if I were to put a percentage, I would say maybe 65%. Keyshawn, then the 35% Bilal, but that's hard. I think what the Wizards would do, but what I would do, I would say Keyshawn, to be honest.
Speaker 2Yeah, I want to get through a couple of housekeeping notes here. We talked to Brian Keefe at practice today and tried to get a sense of whether Alex are Chris Middleton. We're going to be active for this game. And he said, it's still to be determined. The only players that could rule out were Jameer Watkins, of course, is out for the season with the torn ACL. And then Tristan Vujovic who will be probably out for the first two weeks of the season with a hip and pigment. Uh, one thing I want to see, and I want to get. I want to get your thoughts on this DB is we've heard the last two weeks in training camp here. They're talking all about defense. They did defense the first day in entirety. They've been putting in installs, team defensive principles. They're talking about rebounding, how, if the shot goes up and you miss the possession supposed to be over, I want to see some of those things show up on tape tomorrow. And the final score is irrelevant. But at the end of the day, if we are preaching these things, I'm talking about the Wizards, preaching these principles of playing fast, running in transition and getting stopped so they can in turn run in transition. Can we see some of that stuff tomorrow? I think that's kind of what is important to me because we didn't see a lot of team oriented defensive principles last season. Are we going to see some early looks at that? And additionally, you're going to have two bigs down there playing potentially, even if it's Sard not out there, you could have Aiton in the starting lineup playing with Anthony Davis. The fact that you have two bigs down there, how much better are they going to look defensively with that as a byproduct of the whole situation? I'm kind of interested in. In seeing that, but I want to get your thoughts on it.
Speaker 5Yeah, no, I have that on my list as well. I made a video about it today regarding defensively because we heard this and I'm not, you know, there's no shots whatsoever regarding this statement right here. But media day last year, it was all about we're a defensive minded team. This is going to be our identity. And then we ended up finishing 30th team defensive rating. Now, it was tanking, you know, so I wasn't pissed off a little bit flustered here and there, especially in November. But, you know. I think I need to see more than just marginal improvements. You know, we finished 30th last year. A lot of it could be also attributed to taking basketball. Also, we're playing a lot of rookies, but also we just weren't off the par in general. No excuses, right? I in terms of marginal improvements, like if we finish 26th in defensive rating, that doesn't move the needle for me. That doesn't do it. Like I am looking towards like the range of like 17th to 19th. I think that's feasible. You got one of the best defensive players of all time. I mean, AD, you got SAR, Elite Rear Protector, you got Keyshawn, you got Balakola Bali, but it's that where, you know, I think one of the main reasons, obviously, why I saw, I mean, AD was brought here is to be that culture setter, that premier culture setter that I already see he's doing already since day one of training camp. You know, you see all these clips that you guys are putting out there. But, yes, regarding everything you said, Ben, like the way I see it, the past three years was tanking basketball. You know, a lot of asterisks could be. You put alongside some of these stats. But in my opinion, that past has expired. We've given them a pass the past three years. Now, I'm not saying I'm expecting second round of playoffs or 50 doves, 45 doves. But what I am expecting is something more than just marginal improvement. I want to see something where I can confidently say, man, in 2027, 2028, I am expecting a playoff berth with a defensive identity that they've been talking about for a while. So that's definitely what I'll be looking forward to. Not just preseason. But throughout the entire season.
Speaker 6Yeah. And you're not the only one, bro. The past three years, it's been tough. A lot of Wizards fans being patient. That key word. And that 2027 is the year where you take, hopefully, that jump. This year, it's a big reason why I think the bare minimum is the play. And especially in the Eastern Conference as well. In transition, DB, how effective do you think this team can be when you have Trey Young running the point guard position?
Speaker 5I think we're going to be really effective. We saw the pace numbers last year. But. You know, like, we got a lot of mobile bigs. Well, obviously, Alex Saar. But one of my biggest things that I'll be looking for in the preseason is obviously Alex Saar recovering back from his injury. Like, I've been asking this question myself for a while. It's like, I'm not worried about Saar being there available come game one. It's just more of just like, is he going to be in like an diminished restriction? You know, and thankfully, we got guys like Aiton there. You know, Tristan Vukovic is down. So that's unfortunate. But we got Anthony Gill and Felix Opara. But, yeah, I mean, you know, I also feel like that pace number could be a bit inflated at times. Again, due to like tanking basketball, like a lot of the team stats to be acquired the past three years, like a lot of it to me. Well, some of it's justified, you know, us being like dead last in multiple categories. But, you know, because a lot of it was, you know, I guess you could say deflated in March and April throughout all these tanking basketball that we saw. I just want to see besides the metrics, the identity being cemented. or in the beginning stages of being cemented in this team. because now's the time you got all the young nucleus here they're all young bucks here you gotta hammer this in early on to this career so that they can carry on for the rest of the entire
Speaker 6career real quick ben i wanted to say i wonder if the coaching staff kind of and drilled this mindset of just play fast and go quick because the half court offense wouldn't be effective because before trey young you really didn't have a point guard so that's one thing to keep in mind
Speaker 2pace is such a deceiving stat i would say because the wizards were top five in it but like what does that actually mean they're playing fast but if you're playing fast just to do it then there's no there's no difference so when they say not a track meet when they when they want to play fast this year i think that more involves them actually getting stops and being in transition where you have a legitimate three on two two on one or just hitting an outlet somebody's going to be open down the floor because you're finishing defensive possession so that's something i'm looking forward to uh there's a lot more that obviously we'll get into in terms of like backup point guard committee and other things that we're looking for but i want to pivot the conversation here to the number one overall pick aj debonza we've seen cam boozer play we've seen darren peterson play what are we expecting from aj debonza in his pre-season debut that's going to be next here on lockdown wizards support for today's episode comes from indeed sponsored jobs when workplace chaos hits and you need the right hire indeed sponsored jobs helps connect employers with cans who match specific skills like skills certifications and location so less time gets spent searching and more time gets spent finding the right fit people are finding quality hires on indeed right now in the minute that i've been talking to you companies like yours made 27 hires on indeed according to indeed data worldwide usually the biggest difference isn't someone doing more work it's about having someone who actually knows what exactly needs to happen and it helps everything run a whole lot more smoother whether you're in the workplace wherever it may be spend less time searching and more time interviewing cancer check all of your boxes less stress less time more results when you need the right person to cut through the chaos this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs listeners in this show we'll get a 75 sponsor job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at indeed.com slash podcast just go to indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about indeed on lockdown wizards indeed.com slash podcast terms conditions apply need to hire this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs there is something about a night in capital one arena when you're surrounded by your friends the energy is completely different the way we expect it to be this year and you know you're going to remember that moment for a really long time think about that wizards game that almost didn't happen maybe you almost stayed home because of work money or just not wanting to deal with the hassle of finding tickets then you found a way in and suddenly you're walking into capital one arena with a night with your friends for a night that you're never going to forget that's what game time is all about turning those we should really go moments into actual nights out the game time that makes it easy to find wizards tickets and all other live events with features designed to make buying simple and transparent when you look at the schedule there are definitely games that you'd feel like would be worth getting your friends together for maybe it's going to be the season opener for the wizards on october 21st against the milwaukee bucks game time makes it easy to pull up the tickets check the view and actually make that night happen get your friends get your tickets and tell them it's game time download the game time app create account and use code locked on for twenty dollars off your first purchase terms supply that's code locked on for twenty dollars off wizards games and other nba matchups on game time download the game time app today
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Speaker 2number one overall pick aj de bonza first action we see on an actual nba floor the summer league was fun but a lot of those guys playing in the summer league will not be playing nba minutes this season this is the first i'd say real taste against some real stiff nba competition i'll be at the preseason sergio what are you most looking forward to see out of the number one pick tomorrow um well play to your strengths
Speaker 5i want to see how quickly he plays like we saw that in the summer league you know getting to a spot in the midi shooting over players collapsing the defense being a downhill threat that he was a byu just continuing to see more of that but this time against nba level competition uh finishing over nba bigs you know that part right there um because everything else will just follow through you know play to your strengths how quickly can you play to your strengths in the nba level he did it at summer league let's see if he could translate i mean i'm i think we're all gonna bet that he's going to but just how long it will take for it to translate to his strengths in the nba level i'm also looking to see like just how quickly he will earn a major offensive role and it's not going to be just a one game obviously that's going to be like over throughout the course of games um i i like to think you know age is going to end up finishing at worst like a top three usage rate on the team next year but with ad here and trey young here obviously as well trey i'm being a ball dominant guard he is you know i want to see where the pecking order is going to be come like the beginning of the season so like i want to see how quickly he's going to earn that big offensive role that he's gonna eventually get you know yeah
Speaker 6no 100 i think him getting to the free throw line that's what i want to see in new york tomorrow because that was one thing that we saw in his freshman season in byu led in free throw attempts the whole country and it's so funny because darren peterson guys went off yesterday and jazz fans it's it's gonna be a forever thing for the rest of their careers it's sort of like commanders fans embarrassed patriots fans comparing the quarterback class of 2024 but with our guy and agent abanza caleb willis and karen boozer it's like every night when someone goes off it's like we got we got the guy and it's unfortunate but i'm excited to see this kid play i think his ability to get downhill like you mentioned sergio is truly special one thing for sure i wanted to ask you this his three-point shooting contest i was like uh
Speaker 5looks the same it's exactly the same from the summer league but you know he's 19 years old he's a rookie it just means like a little quick fix in his mechanics i'm not worried about it long term um we shot 33 at byu granted that's not where we want it to be but i mean i'm not expecting him to be like you know 38 39 percent from the three once he reaches his prime in the nba you know just like respectable 36 you know 36 35 36 but um but yeah i think just a little quick uh fix on this mechanics and fix it because it's definitely looking flat in my eyes in my opinion but i i think over time it's going to be you know fixed especially since you have
Speaker 6three-point shooters on this roster and trey young trey man trey johnson kishan it's not a big priority for him to be an elite three-point shooter exactly yeah true yeah there's a lot of that just in
Speaker 2general with like the lack of pressure on him he said himself that he doesn't feel the pressure being a top pick because of the situation he's put in and some people will argue it's been eye the beholder like what do you think it's best for a number one overall pick but but beside the point i do want to see what he looks like playing off the ball because he said one of the main things he's worked on since the summer league was playing off the ball with trey young being your offensive engine he's going to do it we didn't see any of that in the summer league everyone seemed to kind of understand the assignment in the summer league it was like dude get the number one overall pick the ball and let this guy go to work let's see what he can do and he went to work he got to the rim off and he finished at the rim at 89 clip or whatever it was but when it comes to playing in the actual nba system here in dc and playing in the nba system you're going to have a lot of pressure you're going to have a lot of pressure because you're going to be playing in a regular season game he's going to have to adapt playing his game off the ball whether that's going to be catch and shoot opportunities or finding ways to cut catch lobs we've seen videos of him at practice catching lobs will we see any of that maybe even tomorrow and it's it's hard to say in my opinion what from the preseason is necessarily real in what's fake but maybe just seeing the way players move and the energy that they put out in their effort is something that can translate from day one because josh robbins the athletic asked today to brian keith saying do you do basketball teams benefit from not showing certain things in the preseason maybe the way an nfl team was and keith kind of was like uh i don't know like you're not going to see everything obviously but we're still installing stuff we're still in the early stage of the season so is everybody so nobody is really showing everything but the way he plays off the ball i think matters to me because i think that's going to matter for him in the regular season i want you guys thoughts on that
Speaker 5um yeah no i i actually been talking about that in my streams i was just like you know obviously with trey young being here he's gonna be a ball dominant guard um he's gonna lead us in on ball usage maybe um i i think you know the silver lining of trey being here because it is like a questionable fit you know two guys who are ball dominant trey young and agent avanza but a silver lining mental or still a silver lining that i am seeing from this and it could also be delusional to a certain degree but um they will force aj to play off ball and you know he'll have to play more awful that he actually would have done had trey not been here so he'll learn his off-ball skills early on his career so that once you know post trey young era he's more of a complete rounded player maybe perhaps a bit earlier than expected you know um because yeah like imagine if trey young wasn't here and it was been hit like he would have been like maybe very similar role from what he had at byu and he's still gonna have the same similar role that he had byu but like coach he's gonna have to navigate around that you know i still i'm looking at you know the fit but it will force trey i mean agent to learn how to relocate you know uh cut his cutting ability you know just all the simple stuff that he probably wouldn't have emphasized early on in his career now with trey being here i mean like it's kind of like forced to don't you think or
Speaker 2yeah definitely i i feel like it's important because at the end of the day he's a basketball player and everybody has to be well rounded in their game but i do i agree with your point that they're going to pick and choose the spots maybe where you know there'll be some minutes where aj is going to be that main guy initiating the offense and playing heavily on the ball because uh you don't draft a guy number one overall to just have him sitting around that's just not what they do and you just can tell by what they've said about him that that's not going to be the
Speaker 6case i do wonder when trey gets off the floor do you think kishan is going to be that main ball handler so
Speaker 5uh for the second unit orange so like that's one thing i was going to ask y'all because i want to get a feel for how wizards nation is feeling about this because i've been harping on saying well with the second unit you know i don't really see like a primary playmaker there at least not yet you know i think riley can be a point forward he's a point forward in the making but like there's ways to go around it you know you can play kishan with the second unit when he's starting some amount early playing with the second unit you could also do that with aj as well which would also be like you know um like uh the best of both worlds because you know kishan will be predominantly playing off ball in a starting lineup and then he gets these valuable on ball rounds and then he gets these valuable on ball rounds and then he gets these valuable on ball steps in the second unit whereas you know he'll continue developing in that department so that post trae young era i keep saying poster i'm already looking at post but you know like he has this already developed in his bag to be the full-time secondary ball handler secondary playmaker with aj next to him but uh what do y'all think like who do y'all have right now like as the backup primary playmaker with the second unit who do you got i think it's kishan
Speaker 2yeah it's it's tough for me i don't know if i don't know if i don't know if i don't know if i i feel like bub is going to get his chance yeah thing i feel like bub is not going to find himself out of the rotation just right away now if he loses his spot to a trey man or riley initiating the offense or even kishan playing in the second unit or whatever then that'll be his own doing but as far as i'm concerned the way they've talked about bub they're confident in his secondary playmaking ability i know he's struggled getting to the rim he cut his paint touches in half last season but i think he's going to get his chance yeah i think he's going to get his chance he's not that bad of a passer like he can pass the ball fairly well i thought he made decent reads last season but some of the other stuff you want to see from your your backup point guard he didn't do very well last season so i am interested in the role for bub i want to just talk about young players as a whole some of the other bench guys that might get some pretty significant run here in the preseason what's going to stand out to us tomorrow and throughout the preseason that is next here in lockdown wizards you this season vandal is making the excitement go beyond what happens on the field with the all-new vandal rewards club featuring exclusive offers surprises and more every week you got to check the vandal app see what is waiting for you this week if you want to get some action on the field action on the commanders and the giants pretty much must win for the commanders at this point they are actually a three-point favorite at home with jane daniels coming back this week if you want to get a little action on you can do so on the vandal app of course there's nothing like a game winning play when everything comes down to the final seconds that feeling is what makes football so much fun and vandal is adding another layer of excitement with rewards and surprises throughout the entirety of the season make this your most rewarding season ever with vandal visit vandal.com to get started everyone talks about
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Speaker 4with apple card one of my favorite parts of game day is everything leading up to it getting the house ready for a watch party putting on my favorite team's hoodie and making one last run to the store before kickoff you know the routine and with my apple card i can earn up to three percent unlimited daily cash back on every purchase i make with apple card using apple pay not a month from now but every day apply in the wallet app on your iphone today subject to credit approval apple card issued by goldman sachs bank usa solid city branch terms and more at applecard.com i'm interested in
Speaker 2the will riley minutes tomorrow i really am are they going to give him opportunities to initiate the offense what does he look like defensively have we truly seen him put on the 15 pounds of muscle he says he's put on can he compete on that end of the floor i think there's a lot of questions about riley where he fits in this rotation so i'm interested to see what he does tomorrow you guys oh yeah
Speaker 6i was gonna say will riley like you mentioned ben putting on muscle i think he has to have a big year in year two we saw in the second half of last season again it was tanking but the back-to-back 30-point games i think he's too talented for him to not play at all i think the size and obviously it'll be tough maybe guarding those quicker guards that he'll be guarding but at the end of the day these reps that you get from will riley are truly going to mean something and i think playing on ball is going to help his development and going back to bub real quick guys this is a year where i think he's going to be a big jump where i need to see a big jump or a form of some big jump if that makes sense because we've seen sar and kishan in his class but bub was the guy that was trade that trade away denny abia for a lot of denny fans that still bring him up to this day about that trade and it's a little too early of course i understand that because denny broke out later in this career bub's still young but i need to see something he's three-point shooting i love it but getting to the rim rim pressure you're hoping that maybe he can learn something from training on if not being better defensively i know greg told me at media day that greg uh bub was one of the worst defenders in the league and some statistics or something like that but overall team has to get better but i expect a big or a jump from him in year three so if that answers your question but i need to see will riley and bub and that's those scenarios where are
Speaker 2you where are you leaning here with this sergio because i think there's a lot of different young players that don't have a solidified spot in this rotation so where where do you see things kind of playing out like trey mann is is he going to be a big jump in this rotation i think he's going to be a big jump in this rotation i very interesting to me as well yeah
Speaker 5yeah it's three-point shooting i was like okay you know at the open practice um it's like we're predominantly like around 36 for his career um regarding riley like i see two avenues for him uh and i'm a big riley fan i'm a big riley fan um but off the like in the second unit because riley's not gonna start i think we can all agree with that but like you know he's the backup five cemented with the andre ayton trey johnson's gonna so that's three so it leaves the backup and his position was basketball but like the backup one and the backup four and in my rotation i mean this is just me but i got champagney entrenched at the backup four yeah um so then it leaves the backup one and then that's pretty much a battle between bub versus trey and then you can toss in riley but that's the thing with riley like you know i i refer to him as a point forward in the making now maybe he's already made it maybe he made it this offseason very quickly you know but you know that that's something where you know let's let's just say bub versus trey man doesn't you know move the needle for them they're not you know they're just like okay let's see somebody else could rally into the frame there you know also with bub like the way i see it like you could play keishon there with a second unit and bub can play the key but then you got to maneuver things around because then if bub's playing and somebody else is not gonna be playing like it's a lot of johnson yeah exactly you know like it's just like but to me like i know it's like uh you're adding pieces to the puzzle here and it's fun honestly but my biggest takeaway is well damn i didn't have this exercise a year ago regarding our bench like the fact that we got avenues to go to you know intriguing avenues to go to not just somebody we're just going to settle on like that to me you know it's it's it's indicative indicator of like or indicative of our depth which you know will dawkins and coach keith said it's destructive our team but uh yeah yeah but what i would do again i got champagne interested in my four i mean if you if you want to win you're playing champagne
Speaker 2that's the way i see it let me jump in with something on that though like because we're saying if champagne is entrenched as a backup for what does that leave minutes wise for middleton how many does he play obviously and then if that's the case and riley is riley's not a point guard or whatever right like they decide riley's not going to be an offensive initiator in the in the minutes that he is playing then he kind of feels like the odd man out because where else where else does he fit is he a third three um is he gonna play off the ball is like a huge two i don't really i don't know i just i i feel like he could become an odd man out if they find that they like bob or trey man or somebody else running the bench unit especially if you have champagney and middleton playing as a
Speaker 5backup four no i agree i agree like here i have a take here regarding let me know if i'm wrong here um regarding this upcoming year and the overall rotation crunch like what i'm doing is i'm trying to get into the head of the wizards like i'm trying to get into the head of coach keith and i'm just like what would coach keith do here and also like what would the wizards want and in my opinion i think draft politics could be in play here and there i think draft politics could be like a tiebreaker if let's just say guys like people forget about chris middleton as well you know but like if chris middleton and will riley are neck and neck and you know they can't decide on who to play over who you know i can see them leaning towards a guy like riley in that department but you know like you can't use draft politics when you got bub carrington versus a guy like will riley when you both drafted them in the first round like it's where it you know it's very intriguing you know um My biggest thing, though, is that, granted, maybe Riley's not playing at the beginning of the season, but let's just say somebody's not playing up to par. That's when Riley will step in for the maybe said person who's not playing up to par. So one of my biggest questions is how long of a leash will a player have this year, whereas last year they had the longest leash ever this year in a hopefully winning environment and winning season. I want to see just how long that leash is, because in a winning team, I mean, if you're not playing up to par, you know, the next get on the bench.
Speaker 6Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2It's going to be short. And the reason I say that, I know it was kind of said last year, but Michael Wigner, the dude that is the head honcho of this whole operation, and we don't hear from him a lot. He doesn't do a lot of media. He does a state of monumental basketball once a year, and he went on the Ryan Rosillo show after they won the lottery to talk about it. And if he's the one up top saying we're not handing out those minutes anymore, you're not going to be allowed the opportunity to make three of the same mistake over and over again. I think that means business. I think that's going to be the case. So this is going to sort itself out because players will either sink or swim in this rotation, which is a good place to be. I think that's what excites me about the season. It's fascinating to try to put the pieces together and fit. Shapes into block holes like you're a five-year-old trying to figure out who fits where it's going to work itself out at some point, one way or another.
Speaker 6I wanted to ask you, Sergio, I've been putting out this narrative that I would be a little frustrated if JC is not involved in the rotation and Chris Middleton is taking up his minutes, at least in the early on the season, because I understand what Chris Middleton can offer you. But last year to start the season, you didn't see much of Justin Champagny in and out of the lineups. You received some. DMPs. And I understand that you weren't trying to win too much. But this year you have to unleash him. Like, would you understand my frustration?
Speaker 5Yeah, I'll be frustrated with you. Well, I mean, like, I would be frustrated, but only if to see if the player in front of him is not playing up to par, because then I'll be like, all right, come on. Like, you know, like to me, Champagny is like the epitome of a perfect player in a Trey Young, AJ DeBonse led team, a low maintenance offensive player. He is like, yeah, obviously the rebounding ability. Cutting ability, you need Justin Champagny around guys like Trey Young and AJ who are ball dominant players. Now, Justin Champagny is three point shot, which I'm bullish on. You know, I think you'll regain it when you did from two years ago, like around 36, 37, hopefully. But yeah, I mean, we'll see. But one thing about Chris Middleton is just like, I am not fully, I feel like sometimes like the fan base thinks that he is just like a completely like, you know, like. You know, over the hill player like last year, he he he provided some solid minutes like he he's a he's the ideal like veteran bench connector. I think keyword connector. He plays that secondary playmaking duties to like you can make a case that you're going to pick and roll like for SAR throughout the course of his career. Chris Middleton has been one of the best.
Speaker 2Have you seen his on off data like how players perform when he was on the floor? It was better. Yeah, yeah. They were a better team when he played last year.
Speaker 5Yeah. But also father time. He's undefeated, so we'll see how this obviously treated him. But like, you know, there's a reason we call him Chris. And if he's playing, you know, we'll see. But I'm not, you know, ruling out Middleton. But most importantly, like even if he does play like he's still a serviceable player, in my opinion, it's just that the overall health and age. But I just want the best players play guys. That is all I want. The best players to play. Like Ben stated, it's a sink or swim year because. This year, I want to we should get a gist of who are our long term keepers and who are guys who are going to be, unfortunately, not be around for too long. You know, we got to see the pecking order.
Speaker 6I like you said that because there are some listeners, Sergio, that think I hate Bilal Koulibaly. I want every one of these guys to be good. But I also I'll I'll say it how it is. If it's not this year, if there's not an offensive jump, when you have Trey Young as your point guard, then you have to you. You have to give it up.
Speaker 2I'm sorry. You're just you're just giving them more fuel. They're going to comment more hate at you.
Speaker 6I want everyone to succeed as a Wizards fan.
Speaker 5Well, let's see before October 19th, if he gets that bag before.
Speaker 6I think you will.
Speaker 5Yeah, I think so, too.
Speaker 2Yeah. Yeah. I've got some I got some suspicions, but it's just it's so much fun when we get the three of us together. Sergio, it just always a blast to get you on the pod here. And I know you you basically talk to a chat every single day. You're just kind of interacting with people to chat. So this must. Be nice for you to get some like face to face. We can argue we could chop it up about the Wizards here.
Speaker 5Yeah. Yeah. I'm literally just talking to a screen. Yeah. No. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much for having me on. And honestly, I want to have you all on the show as well. I'm learning now how to like navigate and invite somebody on OBS. But yeah, man. Yeah. It's great to chop it up with you guys.
Speaker 6Are we going to I asked you this not too long ago, but we're going to see you on Twitter soon. Or is that still on hold?
Speaker 5Oh, I people when I went to the. The media day event. Other people asked me. Yeah, I was one of them. Wanzo Wanzo was there. He's a really dope guy, along with Alex. They're really dope guys. I because I didn't really have social media growing up. Actually, I did it. You know, YouTube was like kind of like my first ever social media page. So I was just like, all right, this is just enough for me. Then I go to Twitter like, you know, I. It'd be too much of a distraction, but I mean, we'll see maybe one day. I just I don't know. Too much social media is not good for me.
Speaker 2I spend way too much time on it. So I salute you. I commend you. You should probably stay as far away from social media as you possibly can. The fact that YouTube is like your main form, you probably keep it that way. At this point, you made it to 2026 and you don't have to. Well, I should get on the app.
Speaker 5I have Twitter. It's just more of just like, I don't I only just stay on your burner. No. Well, yeah, well, Kevin Durant style. Well, I don't I don't I'm not active on it. I don't tweet anybody. I don't at anybody. I just literally just use it just to follow Ben on it. And all like the Wizards reporters and commanders.
Speaker 6Are you on Instagram? No, no. Oh, dude. That's so rare.
Speaker 5That's awesome. Yeah, I just never really like going. I never really had like the interest. My friends used to make some for me. Just like, dude, what the hell? You're being weird. I was just like, ah, but, you know, for some reason I had like a yearning to YouTube and I chopped it up, click load and here I am now, but I'm very grateful for where I'm at right now. But hopefully, you know, it's a big year for both of us and most importantly, the Wizards. So yeah, man, you know, like I said earlier in this video, like patience that was taught to me this entire offseason. Just patience, patience, patience, because dammit, I didn't have prior that I had. I'm one of the most impatient people ever, bro.
Speaker 2Yeah, we've all we've learned a lot. It's going to be a big year for your channel, of course, where you do excellent work, pretty much the same thing as us. Every single day talking about this basketball team for the last couple of years. So everybody go check out Sergio at the Dirty Bucket on YouTube, subscribe to him if you haven't already. That's going to do it for this episode of Lockdown Wizards. If you're on YouTube, we're going to send you to a 24/7 live stream courtesy of Lockdown NBA and on audio. Be sure to check out Lockdown NBA. All of the top training camp headlines you need right there for our guest Sergio from the Dirty Bucket. Abdullah, you be right there. I'm Ben Schrobert. We're out of here.
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